Vocab 6

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"

ren·e·gade: an individual who rejects lawful or conventional behavior
When prompted with the word renegade, my mind invariably jumps to Barry Goldwater, a political renegade in the best sense of the word. Shunning his conservative peers for pursuing the safe, conventional path of pandering to pollsters and special interest groups, Goldwater demonstrated prodigious courage by taking unpopular, principled stands, and never compromising his ideals. Nominated as the Republican candidate for the presidency in 1964, the senator from Arizona faced off against the then popular Democratic incumbent, Lyndon B. Johnson, and lost spectacularly. However, Mr. Goldwater's nomination returned the Republican party to it's conservative roots, and he was accredited for setting the stage for the "Reagan Revolution" of 1981.

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest"

tar·iff: duties imposed by a government on imported or in some countries exported goods
Tariffs, one of the primary blockades to free trade, remind me of the incomparable Adam Smith, who developed the concept of the free market economy hundreds of years ago. Smith condemned tariffs whenever possible, seeing them as a way for the government to extort money they have not earned from the productive trade of businessmen. Another side effect of this unnecessary governmental interloping was the stifling of foreign economic competition, this diminishing the impact of the fabled "invisible hand", which would have significantly benefited both parties by providing cheap goods of high quality.


tran·quil: free from agitation of mind or spirit
The only way for me to achieve tranquility is through solitude and a good book. Nothing short of total distraction from my own life will suffice. The more detailed and descriptive the prose, the more rapidly I can be drawn into the literary world from my own. Tim O'Brien and Ray Bradbury are my quickest routes to tranquility.